This invention is concerned with plastic pipe clips, and more particularly with plastic pipe clips of a kind for securing one or more pipes to a stud projecting from a surface, comprising a pipe-receiving portion for a pipe and a stud-receiving hole through a body portion of the clip, the axis of the hole lying in a direction transverse to that of a pipe in the pipe-receiving portion, the pipe-receiving portion providing an arcuate wall to embrace a pipe, part of which wall is movable between an open position to admit a pipe and a closed position to retain it.
It is desirable that pipe clips for attaching pipes to the bodies of motor vehicles be generally easy to assemble, especially where they occur in positions which are difficult of access, and difficult to disassemble so that the pipes are retained securely and will not work loose under conditions of vibration experienced in running the vehicles. An example of a clip of the kind referred to is described in U.K. Patent Specification No. 1297663, but while the clip there-described secures the pipe against inadvertent release for so long as the pipe clip remains installed on the car body, the clip does not readily lend itself to use on those production lines where pipes are assembled at least partly automatically, for example by assembling pipe lengths with the clips on a jig adjacent the line, and transferring the resulting assemblage bodily to the car body. Nor does the clip there-described enable a procedure to be readily followed where the clip can be assembled on the stud in a partially installed condition ready to receive a pipe and then finally pushed or otherwise moved into a fully securing condition.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved pipe clip which facilitates the assembly of a pipe in secure relationship to a stud, for example in the manufacture of a motor vehicle.